In the subterranean drilling and completion industry there are times when a hydrocarbon material located within a subterranean formation is difficult and costly to extract for further processing. For example, hydrocarbon materials including high molecular weight hydrocarbons, such as asphaltenes (e.g., bitumen) and various paraffins, have conventionally required expensive and inefficient extraction processes, such as steam injection processes, to suspensionize, detach, and extract the hydrocarbon materials. In addition, the presence of such high molecular weight hydrocarbons in the extracted hydrocarbon material may necessitate additional processing and costs, as such hydrocarbons can have limited commercial utility and can require expensive and complex refining processes (e.g., cracking processes) to be converted into commercially viable products.
It would, therefore, be desirable to have improved methods of extracting a hydrocarbon material, such as a hydrocarbon material including high molecular weight hydrocarbons, from a subterranean formation to overcome one or more of the above problems.